Pudsey Sixth Form College: Work on £13m Leeds college next to Crawshaw Academy to begin next week

Pudsey Sixth Form College, which will cater for up to 600 students, will be built on land next to Crawshaw Academy, off Kent Road.

Construction of the project - led by Leeds Sixth Form College, Crawshaw Academy, Co-op Academy Priesthorpe and Leeds West Academy - will begin on Monday (May 27).

The new college is designed to meet a projected rise in the number of 16-18 year olds across Leeds over the next decade.

Principal of Leeds Sixth Form College, Phil Mark, who will also lead the Pudsey college, said: “We are delighted to confirm that work to create Pudsey’s very own dedicated, first class sixth form college is about to get underway.

“We know there is a clear local demand to help young people from the area take the next important step in their academic or career development, and that demand is only expected to rise over the coming years.

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“Our mission will be to help each of our students set high goals for themselves and then, by putting together personalised plans that make the most of our broad course offering, make those achievable.

“The Pudsey Sixth Form College partnership used feedback from the community to refine our plans so we could deliver a state-of-the-art, specialist college that will really make the town proud and evolve, dynamically, to meet local needs.

“We can’t wait to welcome our first students and show them around next September.” 

The two-storey building will contain 25 classrooms and will incorporate green technology - including air source heat pumps - to minimise its carbon footprint.

Free bus passes are also being provided for every eligible student as part of a series of sustainable travel measures.

During consultation, concerns were raised that public transport in Pudsey might not be good enough to bring hundreds of new pupils to the college.

Conservative Coun Dawn Seary, who represents the Pudsey ward, tried to dissuade members from giving the go-ahead to build the school and said the site was “wholly unsuitable”.

But the plans were approved in principle by the council last year, before being given the green light by the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

The college’s initial A level offering will include a range of subjects including business, psychology, law, maths, English language and literature, and biology.

The curriculum, which also includes some key GCSE courses, will eventually expand to cover 26 different subjects.

A number of vocational courses, including T Levels, will also be available along with a ‘hybrid’ option that lets students combine two A levels with a vocational subject.

The CEO of Red Kite Learning Trust - of which Crawshaw Academy is a member - Richard Sheriff, said: “This sixth form college will enable the young people of Pudsey to access the quality education they need to take their next step post-16, without having to move away.

“It is a much-needed facility with the potential to open up opportunities and transform lives, and we are looking forward to showing students, and the wider community, around when the construction phase is completed.”